Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon has told lawmakers that the government will hold a public consultation this year on its plans to reform the civil service.

Cheong announced the government’s intention to hold the public consultation during a plenary session in the hemicycle of the Legislative Assembly (AL) on Friday about his portfolio’s policy guidelines for this year.

Cheong said the plan’s objectives and implementation phases would be submitted to the public for consultation. He said the government was currently collecting information from the public administration for analysis in preparation of the plan. He said that many long-existing problems had already been identified.

Cheong, who previously headed the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC), acknowledged that the civil service is beset with overlapping functions and the inadequate deployment of civil servants as well as the difficult coordination and sluggish implementation of interdepartmental tasks. He also singled out the lack of clear objectives in civil service training programmes.

More leisure spaces

Meanwhile, Cheong also promised that the government will use idle plots of land to create more outdoor leisure spaces for the population.
Cheong’s portfolio includes supervision of the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM).

IAM Vice President Lo Chi Kin, who was among a number of bureau directors and other senior officials who attended Friday’s Q&A session in the legislature, singled out various leisure space projects such as sports fields and children’s playgrounds in the Lam Mau area on the peninsula, a football pitch and a dog walking area in Taipa, and the development of a large-scale leisure area in Hac Sa Beach including zones for camping and horticultural activities.

Due to the redevelopment project, the popular Hac Sa Park Restaurant will close for good on May 5, staff members of the eatery told The Macau Post Daily over the weekend.

According to Lo, the Municipal Affairs Bureau also plans to extend the existing bicycle tracks in Taipa from 1,500 to 4,800 metres.

The government announced recently a “green promenade” project along the peninsula’s southern waterfront from the Macau Science Centre to A-Ma Temple.

“We will create green zones, that’s our responsibility,” Cheong said, adding that next year the government will finalise an urban tree-planting plan for the next decade.